Christian Schools: Learning in the Courtroom

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.…”

Thomas Jefferson hadn’t known about teacher certification, approved textbooks, or minimum competency testing when he helped write the Bill of Rights. Otherwise, his brief First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution might have been more specific, dealing with church schools, as well as churches.

As it stands now, however, the courts must decide how the 200-year-old amendment applies to religious freedom in the twentieth century and—due to the present Christian school phenomena—how it applies to state regulation of private and church-related schools.

The rapid growth of private and church-related schools now is matched only by the increasing number of court battles that put the individual states and church schools in direct opposition.

Each faction has a strong case. The states argue that students should be guaranteed a basic education, and they often want to monitor all state schools to make sure that this education is being provided. The monitoring process may involve mandatory annual reports filed by the schools or more direct involvement, such as conforming to public school standards.

The church-related and private schools also want to give their students a basic education—but in their own way and without government interference. They say that Christian day schools are no different from any other church ministry: Government involvement in the church school would be the same as involvement in the church, itself, and violate their constitutional right to religious freedom.

A recent legal bout between the state of North Carolina and sixty-three of its Christian fundamentalist schools showed the church-state controversy in microcosm. In this instance, the state “won.” The state took the Christian schools to court last April after the schools refused to file reports regarding their operations. The forms, which must be filled out completely for a school to be licensed by the state, asked questions about teacher certification, textbooks used, and school supplies. During preliminary hearings, about 2,000 angry churchmen showed up outside the Raleigh courtroom to protest.

Representing the Christian schools was Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, attorney William A. Ball. Ball won the landmark Supreme Court case in 1972 that gave certain Minnesota Amish the right to keep their children from high schools, and he is regarded as a “specialist” in cases of this sort.

In his closing argument at the hearing, Ball told Wake Superior Court judge Donald L. Smith that the required forms were in violation of freedom of religion. In a Raleigh News and Observer report, Ball said, “It’s getting to the point where the state is imposing everything.… When the state absorbs education, then we’ve crossed a very dangerous point.”

Andrew A. Vanore, Jr., a North Carolina deputy attorney general, argued that the regulations were “reasonable.” He said that there was no evidence to show that “any of the regulations imposed in fact violated any religious belief that is deeply rooted in religious faith.” The schools in Vanore’s view simply did not want to submit to any state regulations.

In his early September decision, Judge Smith saw it Vanore’s way. Smith said in a twenty-three page decision that the state has a “legitimate and compelling duty to insure that all students in the state are provided a basic education and competent teachers.”

Smith’s ruling was not entirely rigid. He said the private and church-owned schools would not have to meet exactly the same standards as the public schools: The private schools would not be required to have the same number of teachers, the same quality or quantity of instructional materials, or the same textbooks as the public schools. But Smith still maintained a church school’s obligation to file state reports. Soon after the decision the schools voted to appeal the court order to file reports, and the state appeals court granted them a temporary stay.

Several other church school disputes still are hanging fire in North Carolina. In late 1977 its State Board of Education voted to include private schools in new achievement and competency testing programs.

Church school officials vehemently protested the decision, and the State Board decided to exempt the schools from the program for the 1977–78 school year. The church school leaders wanted to know how the test information would be reported, why socio-economic information about the parents was required on the forms, and who was going to pay for the programs. (Under the program, high school seniors would be tested on reading and writing skills, and passing grades would be needed for graduation. Standard achievement tests would be given at other selected grade levels.)

In June, more than sixty North Carolina fundamentalist schools also refused to pay their first-quarter unemployment insurance taxes. Church leaders claimed that their schools were part of church ministry and thereby exempt under the allowance given to churches.

The church-state controversy is not unique to North Carolina. Court battles have occurred in several states.

Last summer, parents, teachers, and students of twenty Christian schools in Kentucky filed suit in Franklin County Court asking that state standards not be imposed upon them by the Kentucky Board of Education. As with other church-related and private schools involved in similar state regulation disputes, these schools were willing to meet state health and safety requirements. But they were especially opposed to teacher certification and board-approved texts that excluded the biblical version of creation.

These parents are particularly concerned about the upcoming decision of the court, which has taken the case under advisement until mid-September. Only a court order has stopped a Kentucky Board of Education order to crack down on parents of children attending schools that aren’t accredited by the state. Under Kentucky statutes, parents can be charged with encouraging truancy by sending their children to nonaccredited church schools. If convicted, a parent faces a maximum one-year jail term and a $500 fine.

The position of the state is common to that in other courtrooms. Bert Combs, former Kentucky governor who represents the school board, said state regulation is needed to prevent “fly-by-night” schools that inadequately train children who cannot compete with their peers. “If the court rules for them [the church schools],” Combs said, “it would set the precedent that anyone could come to Kentucky and set up a school and teach the Bible and nothing else, and charge as much as you want.”

Grading The Schools

Americans aren’t especially happy with the nation’s public school system, national pollsters are finding out. That may explain one reason for the church school boom. A recent CBS News poll revealed that “there is deep and widespread worry that education in American public schools has not only not improved, but has declined perceptively.”

More than 40 per cent of the 1,600 adults polled thought education today was worse than what they had received. They cited the adverse effect of television, poor teachers, and inadequate parental discipline as reasons for the decline.

In this survey conducted for an August CBS special, “Is Anyone Out There Learning?” many respondents agreed on ways to correct the situation. About 76 per cent favored “back to the basics” education; 82 per cent wanted minimum competency testing; and another 83 per cent said class promotions should be made strictly upon merit—not for “social” reasons.

Of the 1,600 adults responding in the tenth annual Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitude Toward the Public Schools, only 9 per cent gave the public schools an “A” grade for 1978 as compared to 18 per cent four years ago.

“Lack of discipline” was given as the biggest problem facing America’s public school system in the poll. Right behind in a list of ten major problems were dope/drugs and lack of proper finances.

In their request for “better teachers” in the public schools, the Gallup respondents wanted teachers who took a personal interest in each student and his or her problems, rather than just a teacher with better training and knowledge.

Another state witness answered a church school complaint about approved textbooks. Kentucky’s deputy superintendent of public instruction said Christian schools could apply for exemptions from using texts they find objectionable, but that no such requests had been made. (Representing the church schools in the case is attorney Ball.)

Other recent church-state cases include:

• Six northern Minnesota families are fighting court rulings that order them to send their children to public schools; they say compulsory education violates their freedom of religion.

• An evangelical Methodist church official in Dublin, Maryland, is fighting a Maryland Health and Welfare Council order that would require him to fill out a questionnaire on regulations involving church day care centers, camps, schools, and other youth facilities.

• The Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) said that Grove City College (United Presbyterian), Grove City, Pennsylvania, must comply with the Title IX program having to do with women’s rights. HEW attorneys say Grove City must comply since it is a federal institution in the sense that many of its students receive federal scholarship monies.

Certain fundamentalist groups are gearing up for legal battles ahead. Church school supporters already have spawned at least two national defense funds: the Christian Law Association in Ohio and the Christian Legal Defense Fund in Texas. Newsletters, films, and demonstrations have contributed toward making the church school sector formidable.

Indeed, the movement is growing. Even though most Christian schools are run by independent congregations, the number of these schools has tripled during the last ten years. The American Association of Christian Schools, a six-year-old Normal, Illinois, group, even has developed an accrediting system for church-run schools. An estimated half a million students attend these day schools.

Lack of discipline, busing, and declining moral standards in the public schools are common reasons for church school popularity. Critics of the church school movement see the fundamentalist surge as an isolationist escape. They also say the fundamentalists hurt programs of racial integration by separating themselves into white conclaves.

School Tax Credits: Making New Converts

Not all church leaders want Uncle Sam completely removed from the private school scene, as Senator Robert Packwood and other proponents of the controversial tuition tax credit bill found out; he recruited and received support for the bill from key evangelicals.

Floyd Robertson, public affairs director of the National Association of Evangelicals, superchurch pastors Robert Schuller and Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson, talk show host and head of the Christian Broadcasting Network, all favored the bill. Even evangelist Billy Graham voiced loud support for this bill that would give federal income tax credit for school tuition.

Evangelical support for the bill was an about face for some people who in the past would have opposed the bill on the grounds of separation of church and state; tax credits—money subtracted from taxes due—would especially benefit students in parochial schools.

Dismay over public school conditions may have caused the turnabout. Graham complained about “the lack of moral and spiritual guidance for the young people in much of our public school system” in a Washington Star article. He said that the tuition tax credit would give parents more freedom of choice regarding the schools their children attend.

Indeed, the tax credit bill may cause parents to look closer at the private and church-related school option. The House version of the bill, passed in June, would provide up to $100 in tax credits for elementary and secondary school tuition and $250 for college tuition. The recently passed Senate bill allows credits, but only for college education, of up to $250 per pupil per year. A House and Senate joint committee will now put together a compromise bill.

But President Jimmy Carter has promised to veto the legislation. He opposes the bill “very deeply” because of its cost and because of the church-state issue.

If Congress overrides Carter’s veto, the bill is certain to face a Supreme Court test. Attorney General Griffin Bell earlier said in a written opinion that the bill was unconstitutional.

Religious groups have taken opposing stands on tax relief to parents of children in nonpublic schools. Roman Catholic, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and Orthodox Jewish educators traditionally have supported such legislation, but now they have been joined by unlikely reinforcements. Some black groups that formerly opposed the bill on grounds that it would encourage school segregation have changed sides. Roy Innes, of the Congress on Racial Equality, says tax credits may stimulate improvement of urban schools and divert power away from the educational establishment to the parents.

The strongest support may be coming from backers of fundamentalist schools. Such schools have tripled in number during the last ten years, according to Arno Weniger, American Association of Christian Schools official.

But the opposition won’t die in this lively debate. Senator Mark Hatfield, who has a large evangelical following, had led the fight against the bill. The National Education Association, the NAACP, and various Jewish groups are fighting the bill; they say it will kill public education and give the private schools windfall profits.

Shortly after the Senate acted on tuition tax credits, it voted down a bill that would have provided $2.5 billion direct aid to nonpublic schools over the next five years. Senator Ernest Hollings, who led the fight to exclude elementary and secondary school tuition credits from the Senate version of the bill, also fought this aid proposal. This time, however, he was backed by both the opponents and the supporters of aid to private schools; they agreed with Hollings that the nonpublic school aid was “undesirable, unconstitutional, and fiscally unsound.”

Army of Virtue

Ethics and morals courses will be included in a new four-year curriculum to begin this fall at the United States Military Academy.

Such courses have never been offered before at West Point, where the honor code (“a cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do”) had always been considered sufficient for maintaining cadet discipline. But last year’s cheating scandal at the academy—the school’s worst, involving 150 students—prompted a reevaluation of that policy.

Lieutenant General Andrew J. Good-paster, who was called from retirement to assume the superintendent’s post, instituted the courses to halt the moral decay that he claims has characterized the army since the Viet Nam War. Cadets must take two ethics courses their first year, and another course will be required each subsequent year. Goodpaster envisions West Point graduates of the program as “missionaries,” armed with virtues that will rub off on their fellow soldiers in the field.

The new ethics curriculum has no particular spiritual emphasis, though West Point chaplain James D. Ford serves on the planning committee that designed the courses. Mandatory spiritual training ended six years ago at the academy when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that its policy of requiring attendance at chapel services was unconstitutional.

Despite the academy’s voluntary worship program, cadet interest in spiritual matters is described as “strong” by one of the school chaplains. Chaplain David Camp, a civilian and one of three assistant chaplains at West Point, says that many of the academy’s thirty-six companies (each company has about 120 men) hold small group Bible studies.

Camp leads a daily 6:20 A.M. chapel service that is attended by 150 to 250 cadets. He also helps with a Saturday night Christian coffeehouse ministry.

Camp, who along with fellow chaplain Dave McDowell is a graduate of Wheaton College, estimates that 40 per cent of the cadets participate in school religious activities, which may include Sunday worship services or small-group meetings. About ninety cadets teach Sunday school classes that are attended by children of post personnel. This Christian education program is rich in tradition—the late President Dwight Eisenhower once taught Sunday school there.

Fall From The Family

(The following update has been distilled from extensive accounts filed by correspondent Joseph M. Hopkins.)

The latest rupture between evangelist Gamer Ted Armstrong, 48, and his ailing 86-year-old father Herbert W. Armstrong, founder and ruler of the 65,000-member Worldwide Church of God (WCG), appears final. Gamer Ted was excommunicated by his father in June following months of bickering and maneuvering within the WCG hierarchy.

Now the younger Armstrong has announced that his new organization—the Church of God International—will celebrate the traditional Feast of Tabernacles in mid-October at a Georgia coastal resort. Gamer Ted has also launched a daily radio broadcast on several stations serving parts of Texas and California. (The WCG is based in Pasadena, California—an area covered by one of the stations—and for years it operated a college near Gamer Ted’s Tyler, Texas, residence.)

In a letter to WCG members last month, the elder Armstrong warned, “The Gamer Ted Armstrong Church has now started a campaign to draw away both whatever sheep and shepherds he can now entice to follow him—to follow a man instead of the living God!” Herbert Armstrong also “marked” his son—meaning that any WCG members who contact or support him likewise may be excommunicated.

The younger Armstrong insisted that he was not starting his own church. In a telephone interview he said, “I am merely continuing the ministry to which God has called me.” He added that he “cannot deny the special gift of God’s anointing” by seeking secular employment.

No WCG ministers have yet joined the younger Armstrong’s rival church, spokesmen from both sides report. However, Garner Ted’s aide, Paul Hunting, said that “a lot of members have written and sent contributions.” Once the apparent heir to the WCG empire, Garner Ted had attracted popularity as the fair-haired host of “The World Tomorrow” show sponsored by the WCG on 500 radio and television stations.

The latest developments cap a stormy period in the WCG, a sect that mixes certain sabbath and law-keeping practices with tight discipline, triple tithing (the annual worldwide income of the church is between $65 million and $75 million, according to a WCG source), and a belief that Britain and America have replaced Israel in God’s plans.

Things began heading for a showdown last April when Garner Ted said the WCG’s 1,100-student Ambassador College would be moved from its posh Pasadena campus to the former branch campus in Big Sandy, Texas. He also resigned as president of the thirty-one-year-old school and named former Big Sandy dean Donald Ward as his replacement.

However, the elder Armstrong exercised his authority by rejecting Garner Ted’s decision to move the college. Instead, he announced that the college would be closed and be replaced by a small ministerial training center (See June 2 issue, page 41). He stripped his son of his executive title and powers, then canceled “The World Tomorrow” television show. WCG legal specialist Stanley Rader said the father’s wrath was particularly triggered by his son’s appointment of Ward as Ambassador College president without the elder Armstrong’s own knowledge or approval.

In June Herbert Armstrong sent his son into six months’ seclusion for him to seek repentance. He accused Garner Ted of too much secularism at the expense of theological content, especially in relation to his son’s television endeavors. He also blamed his son for taking administrative liberties. The elder Armstrong explained these grievances to WCG members in a reprint of a letter that he had written to his son two days earlier. In that letter he told his son, “You are defying and fighting against Jesus Christ, whose chosen servant I am.”

During his banishment, Los AngelesTimes reporter Bert Mann located Garner Ted at a WCG camp in Minnesota. In an interview, he complained that the WCG was “shot through with fear” and suffering from financial difficulties caused by lavish spending. Garner Ted said he “reluctantly agreed” to sign documents giving salaries of $200,000 to his father and $85,000 to himself. (He claimed that his own net worth was only $30,000.)

Herbert W. Armstrong excommunicated his son shortly after learning of the interview. In a letter of explanation to WCG members, he accused his son of diverting WCG mail and funds and for “distorted and false accusations” to the press. The elder Armstrong also cited drinking and gambling problems that he said had overtaken Garner Ted in 1971. He alluded to alleged sexual misconduct by his son in a January, 1972, incident; the elder Armstrong finally acknowledged that he had covered up wrongdoing. About thirty-five pastors left the church at that time, claiming a cover-up in the affair.

Garner Ted defended himself against the charges in a separate letter to WCG members. He also commented: “I am ashamed and embarrassed for my father that he is digging up a past that was forgotten and forgiven.”

In announcing formation of his own church, Armstrong said he had rejected a $50,000 annual retirement income and a luxury Lake Tahoe home, which were offered to him in exchange for an agreement not to reveal “certain confidential information I have concerning the work,” to refrain from religious broadcasting, and to stay away from WCG members.

Deaths

ROBERT T. KETCHAM, 89, pastor, who was instrumental in founding the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches in 1932 and former national representative of that group; in Chicago, after an extended illness.

GLENDON MCCULLOUGH, 56, executive director of the Brotherhood Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and personal friend of President Jimmy Carter; in Memphis, in an automobile accident.

ARCHBISHOP NIKODIM, 48, high-ranking Russian Orthodox metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod, controversial ecumenist, one of six presidents of the World Council of Churches; in Rome, of a heart attack during an audience with Pope John Paul I.

ROBERT W PIERCE, 64, founder and former president of World Vision International and president of Samaritan’s Purse; in Duarte, California, of leukemia.

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